In the manufacture of molded shaped products the mold typically is charged with raw material and after the molding cycle the formed product is removed. Normally the formed product is not connected to other similar products and, except for trimming, does not have to be fed through a cutting station.
In the manufacture of molded fibrous products, however, this is often not the case. For example, in the manufacture of molded fiberglass articles, such as automotive hoodliners and topliners, the raw material fed into the mold press is in the form of a sheet or blanket of fiberglass comprised of glass fibers bonded together by uncured binder. The blanket remains attached to the portion in the mold press both during and after the molding operation so that when the finished product is pulled away from the open press the next uncured portion is thereby introduced into the press.
Because the finished products are often quite large and bulky, and because the depth of their concave shape can be significant, it is difficult to automatically handle and cut such products. Compounding the problem is the desire to mold more than one product at a time in order to increase the efficiency of the molding operation. Conventional feed rolls, for example, would not be capable of handling the product regardless of the type of molding operation utilized. On the other hand, the alternative of manually handling and cutting the finished products is not acceptable from the point of view of cost and efficient manpower usage. Ideally, the availability of a new feeding and cutting apparatus capable of handling this type of product would solve the problems mentioned above.